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Computing Discussion Thread

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Original post by Shadow_12
The concept is easy but I suck at coming up with good ideas and I cant decide what sort of program I should make. What are you doing for it?
The purple one. Thanks soo much!!! Will definately buy it.

Also a revision guide to DEFINATELY NOT BUY!!!!: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revision-Notes-level-Computer-Science/dp/1471865835/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1TG6VXR2ANACFCF8EAJQ
Its an absolute waste of £16!


I finished mine recently, I'm in my second year of the course.

I just made a game, because that's what I had ideas for. Maybe just think about what you like to play/use and try and make your own version/twist on the concept?
Original post by Shadow_12
The concept is easy but I suck at coming up with good ideas and I cant decide what sort of program I should make. What are you doing for it?
The purple one. Thanks soo much!!! Will definately buy it.

Also a revision guide to DEFINATELY NOT BUY!!!!: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revision-Notes-level-Computer-Science/dp/1471865835/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1TG6VXR2ANACFCF8EAJQ
Its an absolute waste of £16!


And yup, both the purple book and that revision guide should be burnt lol.
Original post by Ihatescales
I finished mine recently, I'm in my second year of the course.

I just made a game, because that's what I had ideas for. Maybe just think about what you like to play/use and try and make your own version/twist on the concept?


Ohhh ok cool! Good luck for A level exams in a few weeks!
That's a good idea, thanks :biggrin:
Original post by Shadow_12
Ohhh ok cool! Good luck for A level exams in a few weeks!
That's a good idea, thanks :biggrin:


Thanks, you too :smile:
Original post by Ihatescales
And yup, both the purple book and that revision guide should be burnt lol.


Very true both complete waste of paper and space!!! :angry:
Original post by Shadow_12
Wowz!!
Ohh ok... OCR wasn't too bad at GCSE tbh... The exam board recommended A Level OCR textbook is awful tho!!!
Have u been told about/introduced to the controlled assessment yet? (I'm sooo annoyed its only 20% tho)

Having seen bits of OCR at GCSE, for the coursework AQA were much nicer both with task setting and generally being helpful. The OCR computing team my teachers found a complete pain to deal with whereas the AQA team were great (we emailed them a few times for clarification of stuff and they were always happy to help whereas when my teacher used to try the OCR team they just said you should "interpret it")
I've never even seen a textbook for computing tbh :colondollar:
We're working up to it now by doing bits and bobs of object oriented programming (something basically no one has done in the language we're working in). We've been told unless we're experienced programmers though they'll be giving us a task to complete which is really annoying... Think I'll push to do my own as anything will be better than the stuff with javaScript they were suggesting :lol:
(me too! I got 100% in my GCSE coursework so walked into the exam with a C already in the bag... Completely different story next year :sad:)

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Original post by Lemur14
Having seen bits of OCR at GCSE, for the coursework AQA were much nicer both with task setting and generally being helpful. The OCR computing team my teachers found a complete pain to deal with whereas the AQA team were great (we emailed them a few times for clarification of stuff and they were always happy to help whereas when my teacher used to try the OCR team they just said you should "interpret it")
I've never even seen a textbook for computing tbh :colondollar:
We're working up to it now by doing bits and bobs of object oriented programming (something basically no one has done in the language we're working in). We've been told unless we're experienced programmers though they'll be giving us a task to complete which is really annoying... Think I'll push to do my own as anything will be better than the stuff with javaScript they were suggesting :lol:
(me too! I got 100% in my GCSE coursework so walked into the exam with a C already in the bag... Completely different story next year :sad:)

Posted from TSR Mobile


Ohhh ok. Tbh AQA, even their website is much easier to use and find stuff in so I'm not surprised they were more helpful.
If u don't have a textbook what do u use!??
Ohhh ok nice! What language are u working in again? We can use any language we like (apart from python) and I'm thinking of using java cos of the GUI element it seemed to be asking for. Hopefully u get to do your own!! If u do get to do ur own thing what are you thinking of doing?
(IKRR same!! 😢)

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Original post by Shadow_12
Ohhh ok. Tbh AQA, even their website is much easier to use and find stuff in so I'm not surprised they were more helpful.
If u don't have a textbook what do u use!??
Ohhh ok nice! What language are u working in again? We can use any language we like (apart from python) and I'm thinking of using java cos of the GUI element it seemed to be asking for. Hopefully u get to do your own!! If u do get to do ur own thing what are you thinking of doing?
(IKRR same!! 😢)

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The OCR website drives me demented trying to find things :five:
The teachers just use loads of powerpoints :dontknow: videos sometimes as well
We work in Java most the time (irritating language that it is :grumble:). I'm tempted to move back to vb.net as I've never used GUI for Java and I'm slightly scared of it :lol: I should be fine with doing my own, if only I had a proper idea! Atm I'm thinking along the lines of a set of kids games you can play, sounds much more fun than a javaScript website :rofl:

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Original post by Lemur14
The OCR website drives me demented trying to find things :five:
The teachers just use loads of powerpoints :dontknow: videos sometimes as well
We work in Java most the time (irritating language that it is :grumble:). I'm tempted to move back to vb.net as I've never used GUI for Java and I'm slightly scared of it :lol: I should be fine with doing my own, if only I had a proper idea! Atm I'm thinking along the lines of a set of kids games you can play, sounds much more fun than a javaScript website :rofl:

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The Edexcel website is even worse than OCR (if that's even possible!)
Ohh ok that makes sense.
In school we use this java program called greenfoot which lets you have a GUI. Fair enough but it's actually not too bad and in a way it's kinda nicer cos you can program acctual games rather than just have text. Thats acctually a really good idea, and definitely sounds nicer than JavaScript!
Also slightly off topic but how do u get the tsr emojis on tsr mobile? cos I just got the app but I can't find it.
Original post by Lemur14
The OCR website drives me demented trying to find things :five:
The teachers just use loads of powerpoints :dontknow: videos sometimes as well
We work in Java most the time (irritating language that it is :grumble:). I'm tempted to move back to vb.net as I've never used GUI for Java and I'm slightly scared of it :lol: I should be fine with doing my own, if only I had a proper idea! Atm I'm thinking along the lines of a set of kids games you can play, sounds much more fun than a javaScript website :rofl:

Posted from TSR Mobile


If you want your app to look nice then I've always found .NET forms to be nicer to work with than Java Swing for GUIs. Part of it is that .NET Forms uses the UI components provided by Windows itself, whereas Java Swing created all of its own.

By the way, C# syntax is a lot closer to Java syntax than VB.NET since C# basically evolved from Microsoft's attempt at trying to 'hijack' Java for themselves, so if you're used to Java then C# should feel very familiar :smile: Both C# and VB.NET share exactly the same UI controls/components, the same IDE, same UI design tools, so everything is basically identical in either language except the syntax of the language itself) That being the case, there's nothing really wrong with the VB.NET language either - it's just a lot more 'wordy' than Java/C#.

The Java Swing components just look rubbish IMO - the built-in Layout managers which it gives you out of the box make everything look terrible, and there's no way to anchor components to the edge of a panel or frame, so you usually end up with 'absolute' positioning instead which sucks when you try to resize the window etc.
Original post by Shadow_12
The Edexcel website is even worse than OCR (if that's even possible!)
Ohh ok that makes sense.
In school we use this java program called greenfoot which lets you have a GUI. Fair enough but it's actually not too bad and in a way it's kinda nicer cos you can program acctual games rather than just have text. Thats acctually a really good idea, and definitely sounds nicer than JavaScript!
Also slightly off topic but how do u get the tsr emojis on tsr mobile? cos I just got the app but I can't find it.

I'm obviously on Edexcel's too much as I know where everything is :lol: I agree if you can't find something it's a pain though!
My school has greenfoot, but we've never used it... That's what I like about vb tbh, the interface is totally fine and easy to use, compared to java's which whatever you're trying to do always seems to go wrong :lol:
Anything is nicer than JavaScript imo :rofl: Horrible thing...
Erm... I'm afraid I helpfully have no clue... I use the old app, and even then I just know too many emoji codes so type them out myself!
Original post by winterscoming
If you want your app to look nice then I've always found .NET forms to be nicer to work with than Java Swing for GUIs. Part of it is that .NET Forms uses the UI components provided by Windows itself, whereas Java Swing created all of its own.

By the way, C# syntax is a lot closer to Java syntax than VB.NET since C# basically evolved from Microsoft's attempt at trying to 'hijack' Java for themselves, so if you're used to Java then C# should feel very familiar :smile: Both C# and VB.NET share exactly the same UI controls/components, the same IDE, same UI design tools, so everything is basically identical in either language except the syntax of the language itself) That being the case, there's nothing really wrong with the VB.NET language either - it's just a lot more 'wordy' than Java/C#.

The Java Swing components just look rubbish IMO - the built-in Layout managers which it gives you out of the box make everything look terrible, and there's no way to anchor components to the edge of a panel or frame, so you usually end up with 'absolute' positioning instead which sucks when you try to resize the window etc.

Thanks for the info :smile: I did use to code a bit in C# actually probably about 5 years ago which probably actually explains why I picked up java so quickly!


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Original post by Lemur14
I'm obviously on Edexcel's too much as I know where everything is :lol: I agree if you can't find something it's a pain though!
My school has greenfoot, but we've never used it... That's what I like about vb tbh, the interface is totally fine and easy to use, compared to java's which whatever you're trying to do always seems to go wrong :lol:
Anything is nicer than JavaScript imo :rofl: Horrible thing...
Erm... I'm afraid I helpfully have no clue... I use the old app, and even then I just know too many emoji codes so type them out myself!

Thanks for the info :smile: I did use to code a bit in C# actually probably about 5 years ago which probably actually explains why I picked up java so quickly!

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That's true, and on java (on greenfoot anyway) you have to keep jumping onto different windows with the code whenever you want to change something. Im not the biggest fan of vb, but tbh iv only used it for like a week
Thanks anyway tho! Wowz,:w00t: I cant even remember enough of the emoji code to type into the ctrl+f search box!
Original post by Shadow_12
That's true, and on java (on greenfoot anyway) you have to keep jumping onto different windows with the code whenever you want to change something. Im not the biggest fan of vb, but tbh iv only used it for like a week
Thanks anyway tho! Wowz,:w00t: I cant even remember enough of the emoji code to type into the ctrl+f search box!

Vb is nice :love: Well object orientated stuff anyway! It takes a while to get used to it!
No worries :smile: I'm on here too much :lol:

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:bump:

How's everything going everyone?

Personally, I have my coursework deadline in 34 days and it's looking very like I'm not gonna make it so it's a bit of a panic atm, but hopefully I can catch up and get there in the end. Have a mock on theory next week but too concentrated on the coursework to work for it so I guess it's a test of how much first year content I remember :lol:
Original post by Lemur14
:bump:

How's everything going everyone?

Personally, I have my coursework deadline in 34 days and it's looking very like I'm not gonna make it so it's a bit of a panic atm, but hopefully I can catch up and get there in the end. Have a mock on theory next week but too concentrated on the coursework to work for it so I guess it's a test of how much first year content I remember :lol:


Don't panic! What's the project? Don't forget how many 'easy-ish' marks you get for the report, you don't want to throw those away -- All the systems analysis stuff, writing out all the objectives, UI mockups, requirements, system design, test cases, etc. It's a bit time-consuming but that kind of thing can bump your grade up a couple of notches even if bits of the project itself aren't quite working properly.

Good luck on the mock next week! :smile:
Reply 75
Avatar for Pom.
Pom.
5
Year group/ Level of Study: Year 12
Exam board if you know it: OCR
What interests you about computing? Always had an interest because technology is just so cool.
Any topics you particularly hate? I hated networking in GCSEs but we'll have to see.
What programming languages do you use? Python fur GCSE, but I'm learning a bit of C# using visual studio for my NEA.
Original post by winterscoming
Don't panic! What's the project? Don't forget how many 'easy-ish' marks you get for the report, you don't want to throw those away -- All the systems analysis stuff, writing out all the objectives, UI mockups, requirements, system design, test cases, etc. It's a bit time-consuming but that kind of thing can bump your grade up a couple of notches even if bits of the project itself aren't quite working properly.

Good luck on the mock next week! :smile:

It's like a cryptography thing. It encrypts, decrypts, does frequency analysis and then users can create/log in to accounts and when they're logged in they can save and load ciphers from the database. Basically loads of different elements :redface:
Thankfully apart from test cases (which is a mess and a half :lol:) I've actually done most of those bits. The bit that's taking forever is the coding and writing the code up, but the real problem is I've got most of that and my evaluation to do in a month when this month is already crammed with loads of other things so my time is limited. Basically a combination of bad teaching and bad planning on my half :colondollar:

Thank you :smile:
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Uni
Dunno?
I was just brought up with computers
C#, Javascript

I'm actually only doing javascript on uni course, but c# i learned in my own spare time for fun in Unity.
What stage of the coursework you guys at? I pretty much have no idea for the programming bit
Original post by Lemur14
It's like a cryptography thing. It encrypts, decrypts, does frequency analysis and then users can create/log in to accounts and when they're logged in they can save and load ciphers from the database. Basically loads of different elements :redface:
Thankfully apart from test cases (which is a mess and a half :lol:) I've actually done most of those bits. The bit that's taking forever is the coding and writing the code up, but the real problem is I've got most of that and my evaluation to do in a month when this month is already crammed with loads of other things so my time is limited. Basically a combination of bad teaching and bad planning on my half :colondollar:


Planning is always hard. If it was easy, everybody would do it :lol:

That sounds like a fun project to code at least :smile: You can only do the best you've got with the time, I know it's easier said than done, but try not to panic or stress - maybe try to figure out exactly how many hours you think you can spend between now and the deadline and try to plan a little bit from there?

Here's an idea about the planning, to maybe bring a bit of order to the chaos with something like a 'Trello' board - https://trello.com/

- Create a 'task' list of all the bits of the code (or maybe non-code tasks like testing and the rest of the writeup) that you need to do, maybe shove all of it up on so you've got stuff which you can keep dragging into the 'Doing' and 'Done' columns. Keep adding to it whenever you think of something new and keep going back to it to check how far you've gotten.

- Give each task a priority of what's the most important and critical thing that you need to do (So maybe something like getting the database to work could be a top-priority task. then another top-priority task could be writing just one cypher algorithm, etc.) and make sure that you come up with a list of stuff which would give you the absolute bare-bones minimum of a working program. maybe just use high/medium/low.

- Be ruthless in putting all the non-critical stuff as med/low priority until you have at the very least a minimal working project which actually works end-to-end with the database and the UI. E.g. if you're going to write code for different encryption mechanisms that's probably not so critical compared with having the first one because the bare-bones program would still work without the others. I like trello because you can just drag less-important things less-important stuff down the list, or give it a different colour etc. :smile: All the stuff which isn't vital to the core stuff that makes the thing just work at a really basic level can go into medium or low. This is a really good way to force yourself to think aboutwhat's really important and what might be "gold plating" that can make way for more important stuff.

- Make sure you include 'unknown' stuff that you need to investigate as well - maybe a task for each of those - e.g. if you need to figure out how to get SQL working with Java then that might even be a separate task which you could do in a separate small toy/sandbox program.

- Lastly, and super importantly, try to limit yourself to just one task at a time until that thing is complete and out of the way before moving to the next thing. The worst thing you can do on a project is try to juggle too many things at once

So basically, try to figure out what the absolute minimum work is that you need to make the thing work and just chip away at that one-by-one, then you can focus just on the minimum necessary bits before you move on to adding more complex stuff. That might mean you end up not finishing the whole program with all the objectives completed by the deadline but at least you will have the working program and you can use the evaluation in the report to explain what problems you had and why things got missed out; maybe the method (which actually has a name called "Kanban" by the way) could be part of the evaluation


(Working like this is good practice for uni, especially the final year project :biggrin: )

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